Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai – 02

Without skipping a beat, things picked up exactly where they left off last time — Sena and Yozora ready to rip each other’s head off. This time, instead of going after each other in the real world their hate spreads into 2D land. Something about watching Sena and Yozora put some oomph behind their insults makes them that much funnier. Starting when Sena “accidentally” destroyed Yozora with a fully charged cleaver attack, I knew it was only a matter of time until the infinite loop of trying to take out the other would begin.

In the second skit, I was a little shocked with how open Sena was about her inner-gamer. Who would have expected that the popular girl who’s constantly surrounded by boys was secretly a gaming addict? I’ll admit that I was a little suspicious when she had busted out her own PlayingStates Portable and had racked up a little over 53 hours of game play over the span of three days, but after deciding that playing a gal-ge would be better than interacting with real people to build social skills, there’s almost no point in trying to even hide it! At the same time, it’s quite convenient how this provides one of the few channels that allows Sena and Yozora to actually get along with each other.

On a small side note, did anyone catch the sneaky tribute to Steve Jobs? I had the feeling that the back of that game box had something special written on it, especially since there was a big blurb of English on it. But after Divine pointed it out, I have to give a thumbs up to AIC and how they managed to perfectly integrate a quote from the speech Jobs gave at a Stanford commencement ceremony — In a show about kids who can’t make friends, it makes a lot of sense to not worry about what your actions will do now but look back at it from the future after you have the knowledge and experience to see how it all lined up. (The quote is the blurb of English at the bottom talking about connecting dots)

Quick Note:

Hey guys, I apologize with how late the posts are. If you haven’t already read the sidebar, I was out of town the past weekend for a charity event and I have back-to-back midterms this week. I’ll try to get the rest out in a reasonable amount of time, but I make no promises with all these exams staring me right in the face. Thanks for being understanding <3

Find it hard to believe that Kodoka can interact with them fine, but comes off as some murderer to the rest of his class (must be the pink PSP). From the looks of it, that’s just his classmates having an over reactive imagination which even then, just seems far-fetched, even for a comedy.

I don’t think it’s all that surprising that Sena and Yozora get along so well with Kodaka. They’re both insecure people (narcissists) who hide their true selves behind facades in all social settings. So it should come as no surprise that they get along so well with the first person (Kodaka) who was able to accept them for who they really are.

Oh, now I see what you’re trying to get at. The answer to your question is probably Japanese collectivism- “each person is expected to conform to societal ways and norms.” (Taken right out of an academic article).

So basically in Japan (and much of Asia) if you act the part, but don’t look the part; or look the part, but don’t act the part, then you’re going to have problems socially, short of having the rare gift of compelling charisma (e.g. Sena). Kodaka doesn’t look the part (blonde/brown hair + Japanese features), but he acts the part (acts like a Japanese person)- so society perceives him (superficially) as “Japanese + abnormality (hair);” and his abnormality just so happens to be associated with delinquency (What other Japanese-acting person would have brown/blonde hair???, think the other students…)

The only people with any motivation to look beyond Kodaka’s external image would be those who themselves require someone to see beyond their own facade; they’re the only people who understand that appearances are deceiving- having themselves (purposefully rather than unknowingly) deceived others with their own appearances. Or- as we’ll probably see later- those who are desperate enough for friends that anyone will do.

I feel that this whole show is (in a way) a caricature of Japanese (and more generally, Asian) collectivism. Their little club seems like a sanctuary of individualism in a collectivist world; where those whose true selves are/would be rejected by society in one way or another can come to be themselves without any fear of social punishment.

It’s one thing to be white in Asia; people will expect you to act like a foreigner, and will accept that you are different- even if some of the more close-minded ones nitpick on every little thing you do.

It’s another thing altogether to be a “foreign local” in an Asian country; e.g. a second-generation Japanese American in Japan. This kind of person will be faced with immense obstacles socially- more so than even the “true foreigner.” Because he looks the part, he will also be expected to act the part immaculately- which is of course impossible because that isn’t who he is- and if he isn’t able to justify this with compelling charisma, then his social life is pretty much wrecked.

Kodaka is basically the inverse of the second generation Japanese American. He acts fully Japanese, but doesn’t look the part due to his mixed heritage. In order to understand why his peers perceive him as they do, we must look at what society’s expectations are about someone who looks and acts like him. To your average Japanese high-school student, a person with brown/blonde hair is supposed to act “foreign.” But Kodaka acts Japanese, and this contradicts their expectations. So they put two and two together (brown/blonde hair + Japanese mannerisms)- and what does that add up to, using typical Japanese sensibilities- what else, delinquent- and such is the first impression that everybody gets of him. Tough break, Kodaka…

But don’t mind my socio/psycho-analysis. I very much doubt that the manga author had anything like this in mind when he created this series- but I guess you never know. And if he somehow did, then color me impressed- this might just be one of the most sophisticated mainstream comedy anime I’ve ever seen…

1. His mother is European with blonde hair. And so he inherited a yellowish not-quite-blonde hair mixed from his mom and dad. He describes it as “someone who apparently wanted to bleach his hair blonde, but doesn’t have the money, so it’s a bad bleach and looks like a murky yellow rather than nice blonde” or something similar. So his hair looks exactly as what a delinquent would stereotypically look like. Natural hair color screwed him.

2. His face just looks angry, less noticeable in an anime

3. He transfers a lot, so he never built up a stable friend group.

4. This is a church school where there no bullies. So he really stands out as no one knows what a real bully is, and he looks the part.

4. His first day at school he took the wrong bus and got to school late. So when he got to class he didn’t look too good. The teacher took a look at him and got scared senseless. You know what they say about first impressions. :)

Co-op turning to Vs. Pretty nice,wasn’t it?
Also Yozora looked cute in Sensei outfit.
You guys have eagle eyesight or sharigans or something?Must watch it again and check the back of the game.Show Spoiler ▼

Can’t wait for the next episode since it’ll be about Sena playing “Sacred Blackstar”.

I was surprised Sena was the one to start up the PK. Yeah, you pressed the wrong button Sena, enough times to charge up your slash 3 times. The galgame portion was excellent, letting us see exactly why they find making friends so hard.

I would stick now to this show for the sake of sanity and nostalgic ideas.

I remember my first PK days way back 1996 while playing Diablo I using the Sorcerer as I cast Chain Lightning on the Warrior while he’s busy with King Leoric, then start using the Scroll of Town Portal after the PK. My classmate starts hitting my back with her bag for the PK. The dial up connections days..

Takaii! Good luck on your midterms, mine isn’t till another two~three weeks. Anywho; This adaptation is pretty faithful except for the timeline, and the sultriness (which isn’t really a bad thing). I love Meat, I mean, I love Sena. I reaaally hope this would reach volume 3 of the Light Novels.
PS. I also didn’t notice that tribute to Jobs. Yay for lack of attention-to-detail. Oh and yeah, no apologies needed Tak, you were missed though.

Wow, I have to say that I really am impressed with the way Itou Kanae and Inoue Marina feed off each other. I could not stop laughing. Plus I am really impressed with Itou’s range. Going from Ohana to this, words can not describe how sublime this transition was.

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